Hudson and Street are previous All-Stars, including Hudson twice with the A’s. The surprising All-Stars among the Oakland alumni are catcher Kurt Suzuki, whose stock had diminished in recent years; reliever Pat Neshek, almost out of the game last winter; and Oakland native and former Cal player Tyson Ross.

Ross always was seen as a promising right-hander with problematic mechanics. The A’s never could quite figure out a way to keep Ross on the big-league roster and they traded him to the Padres for Andy Parrino and Andrew Werner before last season.

After working intensively on repeating his delivery, Ross has a 2.85 ERA in 20 starts this season.

“Tyson is only about half as good as he can be, and he’s at the All-Star Game,” Street said. “He’s just now starting to understand himself. He’s just now getting to the next layer of the onion. He’s going to be a magnificent, magnificent pitcher to watch for a long time.”

Street raved about Ross’ slider, which is funny, because growing up in Oakland, Ross’ slider was compared to Street’s.

“For a guy like me who grew up watching him in Oakland and people said I said that ‘Huston Street-like slider,’ it means all in the world to be in the same clubhouse as him and learn from him on a daily basis,” Ross said of Street.

Suzuki always was a favorite of A’s pitchers and coaches past and present, and manager Bob Melvin said he texted Suzuki immediately to congratulate him when he heard he’d made the team. Suzuki, traded by the A’s in the middle of the 2012 season and then reacquired by the team last summer when Derek Norris was hurt, had seen his playing time diminish significantly over the years until signing with the Twins as a free agent before this season. He welcomed the chance to show he could still play, and his .309 average is ninth best in the league.

“The last couple of years weren’t so kind,” Suzuki said. “To make the All-Star team and for the home-town team, it makes it that much more special, but really, I was just trying to prove to myself that I could compete at a high level. To make the All-Star team now – unbelievable.”

Suzuki said his work with A’s hitting coach Chili Davis last year helped put him on the right path, one he continued this year with Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky, mostly just trying to simplify things.

Neshek, who memorably pitched out of a jam in the A’s 2012 Division Series against the Tigers just days after the death of his newborn son, Gehrig, is here, too, an unlikely All-Star in his hometown of Minneapolis. He nearly quit last winter, drawing little interest after the season, but he took a flier on a minor-league job with the Cardinals and now he’s St Louis’ top set-up man. Better still, Neshek and wife Stephanee have a four-month-old son, Hoyt.

Given Neshek’s story, NL manager Mike Matheny said, it was “an honor” to choose Neshek. “To watch his face when he made this club, probably the best memory without a doubt so far,” Matheny said.

In all, there are seven current A’s here and five former A’s.

“Seven? That’s why they’re the best team in baseball right now,” Street said.

Suzuki was with the A’s long enough ago to remember third baseman Josh Donaldson as a catcher and closer Sean Doolittle as a first baseman. “I am so happy for them,” he said. “I always said Josh was more athletic than me. And I still say Sean is their best first baseman – and he’s their closer, one of the best in baseball.”

“It’s fantastic, I’m so excited to see so much green and gold here,” Ross said. “That’s the team I grew up with, so it’s really special. The organization is doing so well, it’s good to see things coming around so well.”